A lot of time has passed since Eastern’s indoor track teams had their last meet.

Since their last meet Dec. 8, the Panthers have experienced finals, gone home for winter break and then returned to school.

Both the men’s and women’s indoor track team will resume the indoor track season Saturday at Lantz Fieldhouse at the EIU Mega Meet beginning at 9 a.m. with women’s field events. Running events are scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. with the women’s 4×800 relay. The final event will be the men’s 4×400 relay at 6:35 p.m.

More than 700 athletes from 24 teams are scheduled to compete in the event.

The Panthers will look to avenge a loss against Indiana State, the only team to defeat them at the EIU Early Bird Invite on Dec.8.

“Our team has been competing really hard all year,” senior jumper Obe Eruteya said. “We have come together as a group and have been pushing each other really hard. So it’s good to go out and compete against a good group of teams.”

Eruteya and the jumping team looks to be one of the stronger aspects of the men’s team, but the distance runners have promise, as well.

In the first meet, junior David Holm won the one-mile run with a time of 4 minutes, 16.53 seconds, and the freshman distance medley relay team of Nick Kuczwara, Chad Aubin, Justin Helpingstine and Derek Ericson won the race with a time of 10 minutes, 26 seconds.

Eruteya only competed in the triple jump and high jump in the first meet but will be competing in the long jump Saturday.

For the women’s team, throwers sophomore Nicole Walcott and junior Kandace Arnold look to build on the first meet, in which they had impressive showings.

Arnold won the shot put; Walcott finished second.

“I really hope this meet hurries up and goes fast so we can get to conference,” Arnold said. “We are going to have good competition from Indiana State and, like always, we want to beat them.”

Arnold said the team lost a lot of talent from last season, but the freshmen are looking impressive so far this season.

Head women’s indoor track coach Mary Wallace said the Panthers should be competitive in the jumps with junior jumper Jeanna Uhe, junior hurdler Chandra Golden and junior sprinter Shawana Smith.

Fact Box

Teams competing in EIU Mega Meet

Eastern Illinois, Chicago State, Greenville College, Indiana State, Lewis University, Lindenwood, Marian College, McKendree, Miami of Ohio, Millikin, Missouri Univ. of Science and Technology (formerly Missouri-Rolla), Northern Illinois, SIU-Edwardsville, Southern Indiana, St. Joseph’s (Ind.), Saint Louis University, St. Xavier and Vincennes University. Junior Colleges scheduled to compete are Allan County CC, Danville Area CC, Florissant Valley CC and Rend Lake.

Dan Cusack can be reached at 581-7945 or at dscusack@eiu.edu.